Will Luca Brecel break the Crucible Curse?

Luca Brecel will attempt to break the 46-year undefeated Crucible Curse when he returns to Sheffield this month to defend his world championship title. 

Despite having been a seed player and already an established multiple-time ranking event winner when he turned up at the Crucible last year, it’s fair to say that Brecel was generally unfancied to go all the way at the blue riband extravaganza.

The Belgian hadn’t won a single match on the hallowed carpet before, losing all five of his previous first round appearances. However, he broke his duck with a 10-9 win against Ricky Walden and proceeded to go on a sensational run in Sheffield, eliminating former champion Mark Williams in the last 16 and then claiming seven consecutive frames from 10-6 down to dethrone defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan 13-10 in the last eight.

Brecel then conjured up the venue’s biggest ever comeback (numerically, anyway) as he recovered from 14-5 down to deny Si Jiahui 17-15 in the semi-finals before holding off four-time victor Mark Selby 18-15 in a thrilling final.

We look back at Brecel’s season wearing the world crown, so far, and how he has dealt with the added expectations and attention of his new status within the sport...

First Half of the Season 

Brecel elected not to defend the Championship League Ranking Event title in the summer, instead choosing to enjoy a deserved extended break following his efforts at the Crucible. 

The Belgian Bullet’s first competitive appearance as the world title holder came at the 2023 European Masters in Germany in August, although he was without his world championship winning cue for that tournament due to it going missing in transit following a flight from the United States. 

A running theme for the first few months of the new season, Brecel was in reach of claiming the world number one spot for the first time in his career. A run to the semi-finals at the European Masters would have secured that accolade, but Brecel – using a substitute cue – lost to eventual winner Barry Hawkins 5-4 in the last 16.

In September, the Shanghai Masters returned to the snooker calendar for the first time since 2019. Brecel enjoyed a brilliant run to the final of this lucrative invitational where he lost out to world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan 11-9 in a keenly contested affair. 

Back on ranking event duty a few weeks later at the British Open, though, Brecel went out first round to Ding Junhui in the random draw event, losing 4-3 having battled back from 3-0 down.

The following week at the English Open, Ding did for Brecel in a decider again, as the Chinese cueist defeated him 4-3 in the last 16.

Brecel then missed back-to-back ranking events, withdrawing from the new Wuhan Open in China – which began a day after the English Open concluded – and not entering the Northern Ireland Open due to a planned high-profile exhibition in Macau. However, this exhibition was subsequently rescheduled to later in the year. 

Two more early exits were endured in November; Mark Davis defeated Brecel 6-3 in the last 64 of the International Championship in Tianjin, China, and Barry Hawkins whitewashed Brecel 4-0 in the first round of the Champion of Champions, bookending his display with century breaks. 

At the first Triple Crown event of the season the UK Championship, Brecel eliminated Yuan Sijun 6-4 in round one but bowed out to the in-form Zhang Anda 6-4 in the last 16. 

Heading into the final ranking event of the calendar year, Brecel needed a deep run at the Scottish Open to qualify for the World Grand Prix – the first Players Series event of the term. 

Because of a delayed flight to Edinburgh, Brecel only just arrived in time for his 4-0 opening round win against Iulian Boiko. He ousted James Cahill in the last 64 but his tournament hopes were dashed by Martin O’Donnell (4-2) in the last 32.  

It meant that Brecel failed to qualify for the World Grand Prix having not accumulated enough prize money on the one-year list. He would end up not qualifying for any of the three Players Series events throughout the season.

Second Half of the Season  

A new year but no change in fortunes for Brecel, as Jack Lisowski produced an impressive barrage of scoring during a 6-2 opening round win at the Masters in London. 

At the German Masters later in January, Brecel was eliminated by rookie Ishpreet Singh Chadha 5-2 in round one. 

Since those early departures, though, there have been some signs of improvement and reasons to be positive for Brecel. At the Welsh Open in February, he won four consecutive matches as he made his one and only ranking event quarter-final of the season, so far. His run was ended by O’Donnell, 5-3. 

At the inaugural World Masters of Snooker in Saudi Arabia, Brecel dispatched Ali Carter 4-1, then Mark Allen 4-2 in a high-quality semi-final during which there was at least a 71 break made in every frame. Like in Shanghai, though, Brecel was denied by O’Sullivan in the final, as The Rocket recovered in style and claimed four successive frames for a 5-2 triumph. 

Brecel totted up a couple of wins at the World Open in Yushan, China before losing to Stephen Maguire 5-1 in the last 32, but alongside 12-time world women’s champion Reanne Evans, he won the four-team World Mixed Doubles in Manchester during the final weekend of March.

Summary 

It has been a largely disappointing season for Brecel, with just one ranking event quarter-final appearance to his name, although he did reach the final of two massive invitational events and lift silverware as a pairing at the very recent World Mixed Doubles. 

Going into the 2024 World Championship, Brecel sits 37th on this season’s one-year list. He has missed out on a lot of competitive action this term – eight events to be exact – although that was a mixture of choosing not to, and not qualifying. If he doesn’t have a good Crucible campaign, he may be under pressure next season to defend ranking points. 

There could be an assumption that Brecel has not been playing well, but several of the players who have defeated him this season were in brilliant form and perhaps inspired to share the main stage with, and the opportunity to dismiss the reigning world champion. This is testament to the current strength and depth of the professional tour. 

Brecel has been on the sport’s top tier since 2011, but this season has been like no other for him; introduced as the world champion to his matches and facing scrutiny and expectations like never before. 

An unsuccessful attempt to make the Tour Championship at the start of April means that Brecel has had an extra week off to prepare for his world title defence. 

Although the demands of the World Mixed Doubles and the World Championship are almost polar opposites, Brecel travels to Sheffield with the memory of lifting a trophy fresh in his mind – both at the Crucible and at his last competitive outing.

Nobody knows what the profile of the player who breaks the Crucible Curse looks like, if any, but several of the sport’s all-time greats in fantastic form have been struck by the hex in the past.  

If the same carefree, attacking-minded Brecel from 12 months ago can get on a roll again this time, who knows what he could achieve?